(1) Field of the Invention
This inventioin relates to animal traps, and more particularly to a novel trap for snaring sea animals, such as crabs and the like.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Sea animals, such as crabs, have been routinely ensnared by the use of a net comprised of a ring member having a conically-shaped netting material secured thereto with the ring member being attached to an elongated pole. Generally, the ring member is of a diameter of at least 12 to 16 inches, preferably larger to facilitate capture once the crab is snared and has attached itself to a separately controlled baiting device. The use of such a crab net permits facile capture; however, removal of the thus captured crab is hampered as a result of crab movement and entwining within the netting material. Additionally, the large diameter ring member as well as the elongated pole members do not permit facile storage, let alone convenient access for spur of the moment crabbing.
Other crabbing assemblies of a rigid nature have been developed, e.g. box and pyramid type crabbing assemblies. The box type crabbing assembly is formed with four outwardly collapsible doors. In use, there is no assurance that any or all of the doors open when the box trap is cast into the water, since no door control elements are provided for the box trap assembly. Additionally, the box trap suffers from time consuming and annoying assembly requirements.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,479,325 to the same Applicant, there is disclosed a collapsible trap assembly comprised of outer wall members formed of a semi-rigid netting substrate hingeably mounted to each other about one end portion thereof with another end portion of each wall member opposite the hinged end portion thereof provided with flexible lines to effect hingeable movement of the outer wall members into a closed position, preferably with an intermediate wall member for hingeably mounting the outer wall members as well as to provide post elements for the flexible lines. While such trap assembly permits facile assembly, manipulative steps are required to place the trap assembly from a stowed configuration into operational mode, and vice versa.